QuartzSwap
by Lionheart261
Summary: A perfect cut Amethyst emerges at the worst possible time, and everything she is is thrown into question. Meanwhile, a Jasper emerges five hundred years late, with no knowledge of her purpose and only the vaguest sense of who she's supposed to be. What kind of lives will these two Gems lead, and would they perhaps be better if they had been in the other's place?


"What in Diamonds' name is going on here?!"

A Jasper, standing slightly below seven feet tall, looked over at the crowd of smaller Jaspers assembled around a particular area of the Beta Kindergarten. The Jaspers all ranged in height and build, but some were particularly far removed from the standard body type that a Jasper ought to have under normal conditions. This was evident with one of the Jaspers assembled, a Jasper almost as tall as the one observing her, yet as skinny as a rail, with no implication of any significant strength whatsoever. The Jasper growled to herself angrily. Every Gem made in this Kindergarten all came from a bad batch, and she wasn't much better than most of them. If Homeworld had taken the time to actually organize this place, they would've gotten a whole squadron of perfectly cut behemoths, capable of cutting down anything in their way. Instead, all they got were these barely passable soldiers, only really useful when fused together. And any Quartz who had to fuse to become useful was almost better off not being made at all.

They all seemed to be staring at the rock face, no doubt waiting for some of their companions to emerge. When they heard her voice, however, they turned and saluted hastily. They may have been born only within the last hour or so, but they knew their commanding officer when they saw her. She put her hands on her hips and addressed the crowd angrily.

"Why are you still here? Hessonite wanted you sad clumps of rock out of here and heading towards the front five minutes ago!"

The Jaspers looked to each other, unsure, before one of the larger ones, 6XT, spoke up. "6XZ and 6XY haven't emerged yet," she said, hesitating only slightly when held under her commander's gaze. Said commander scoffed, but before she could say anything, a red glow could be seen coming from a person-shaped hole close to the ground. With a puff of smoke and a loud popping sound, a fully formed Jasper emerged from the hole and landed on the ground effortlessly. She didn't look much different from any of the others, except for being a little bit larger. She looked at the crowd of Jaspers who had been waiting for her and chuckled.

"Sorry I'm late," she said, only to suddenly be put face to face with a Jasper she instinctively recognized as the one in charge. The Jasper looked her over for a moment before sighing.

"About as decent as can be expected from a second-rate Kindergarten," she muttered. Some of the Jaspers assembled wanted to point out that their commander had been made in this Kindergarten too, but they stopped themselves. Judging from her tone, if anyone was the most acutely aware of that, it would be their commander. She stood up straight and looked at the crowd assembled. "Alright, you maggots, move out! We can't afford to waste anymore time!"

"B-but 6XZ-"

"I said MOVE!" she bellowed, and the Jaspers scrambled to accommodate her request. As they marched off, their commander looked at the still-forming exit hole one last time, and scoffed. Knowing this place, she was probably going to be overcooked by a couple years, maybe even a decade. Gems like that were even worse than the defective ones who came out on time, lacking most of their essential protocols and having to be brought up to speed manually. The last thing they needed was to be weighed down by some half-formed mannequin. She turned away and moved to join her subordinates, confident that the Gem she was leaving behind probably wouldn't be of any notable use.

* * *

Centuries passed. The Beta Kindergarten continued to produce Quartz soldiers at an even more frenzied pace: the war was going badly. Through methods that were still a complete mystery to them, the rebels seemed to know their entire strategy, positioning themselves exactly where they needed to be at the best time possible, in order to secure the best odds of victory. Their fusions, although abhorrent, had to be acknowledged as absolutely devastating weapons, with abilities which were completely unpredictable even knowing the Gems they were made of. Defection among the soldiers was rare, yet evident, and even their commanders seemed to be losing hope. To make matters worse, word from some of the Amethysts deployed on the other side of the continent was that the rebels had apparently gotten a Lapis Lazuli to join them. Fortunately, one of their soldiers had poofed her before she could do much damage, and an Agate imprisoned her in a mirror for questioning. Still, the fact remained that they had barely avoided a catastrophe which might have brought the war to a very sudden end.

With all of this in mind, it was no surprise that they were busy mining out the Beta Kindergarten for everything it was worth. Their commanders didn't care what came out of those holes anymore. If the Gem was a decent cut, they could serve on their own. If they weren't, they could fuse with the ones who were. They needed more troops, and they needed them now. If they couldn't come out in a timely manner, they were left behind.

So it was that 6XZ of the Beta Kindergarten was slowly forgotten. Although her fellow "Sixes" continued to hope for her eventual emergence, as the decades went on, they began to worry that she had been lost, or else would come out too overcooked to be of any use. They would probably harvest her and use her raw materials to make a more powerful Jasper. The idea saddened them greatly, but alas, there was nothing they could do. They were all far too busy fighting off the Crystal Gems on behalf of Pink Diamond, and such, their lost companion was largely absent from their minds, remembered only as part of a toast on the eve of every battle.

Eventually, whatever hope they might have had of seeing her again was completely dashed when the unthinkable happened: Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond. Apparently acting alone, not even her trusty Pearl beside her, Rose Quartz had evaded all of Pink Diamond's extensive security measures and shattered her in solo combat, disappearing before anyone could respond. Pink Diamond's shards were promptly collected and sent off to Homeworld on their fastest ship, to be delivered to the other Diamonds for the sake of remembrance.

Their minds burdened by the aftermath of this horrific event, 6XZ completely slipped from their minds. Years later, Homeworld's forces scrambled to evacuate as the Diamonds came to Earth...intent on sparing nothing.

* * *

It had been years since any living thing, organic or Gem, had passed through the spotted canyon which comprised the Beta Kindergarten. The desert had already been rather inhospitable to most forms of organic life, but hundreds of years of Gem production had ensured that nothing could ever live there permanently. The sun was at its highest point in the sky, casting an oppressive light onto every exposed surface of the canyon, when something in the rock face broke the land's virtual silence. Within seconds, a hole formed in the rock, smaller and thinner than almost all of the others scattered throughout the canyon. After that, a red glow emanated from the newly created hole, and with a loud pop, a Jasper tumbled out of it, landing on her rear end with her legs outstretched.

Her limbs were separated by clear lines at the elbows, knees, and ankles, almost like a mannequin's separate parts. She "wore" a simple red and maroon suit, and had a small orange gemstone where most Gems' noses would have formed. With a blank expression on her face, the Jasper idly looked towards each of her hands, moving them around as if she'd just figured out how they worked. After a few seconds, she began to crawl on her hands and knees, getting a feel for how her legs worked as well. She was happy walking around like this for awhile, surveying her surroundings, but eventually the activity felt...off. It didn't feel like her body was supposed to move like this. She tried shifting her position so that she was walking with her hands and feet, but this didn't work, either. Eventually, she got the idea to push herself up off of the ground such that she was only using her legs to move. After a couple hesitant steps, she started to get the hang of it, and ultimately felt way more comfortable than she had previously.

This new bipedal locomotion greatly assisted her in surveying her surroundings, which seemed to be fairly...limited, in terms of what unique stuff she could find. There was the stuff that the walls and floor of the canyon was made of. Then there were the weird tube things hanging off of the canyon walls. And then...there were the holes. Holes that looked like they had housed people similarly constructed to her. She looked back behind her to find that, indeed, she had come out of a hole just like the others, only...smaller. She walked up to it and inspected it closely. It stood perhaps a fair bit over five feet tall, but was a fair bit thinner than some of the holes she had seen. She stepped inside it, positioning herself such that she fit into it perfectly. This question answer, she then exited the hole and took a step back to look for a closer source of comparison. After a couple seconds, she found the hole above hers, which was both wider and easily a foot taller. The hole above it was similar, she noticed. So was the hole above that one. And the hole to the left of hers. And the hole to the right. And...

She looked down at the ground, her mind preoccupied with the first complicated question it had ever had to ponder. Her reasoning followed a simple progression, but one which nevertheless left her troubled. Firstly, she knew that she came from a hole. She also knew that there were other holes all throughout the area. So, if she came from a hole, she reasoned, then other things like her must have come from the other holes. She had just proven that the hole matched her own size and shape perfectly, thus demonstrating a correlation between hole shape and "thing-like-her" shape. She had also found that most of the holes stayed within a narrow range of sizes and shapes, a range which she was clearly far removed from based on her observations. So, with this information in mind, she had but one thing she couldn't answer:

Why weren't there more holes like hers?

* * *

"Are you sure about this?"

A Pearl wearing a light blue top and what almost looked like skin-tight pink shorts trailed nervously behind two other Gems: an eight foot tall Rose Quartz in a flowing white dress and wielding a pink sword, and Garnet, a stable fusion of a Ruby and Sapphire, her enhanced gauntlets summoned and ready to be used at a moment's notice. Having just warped into the Beta Kindergarten, the Rose Quartz led the small group, with the Garnet accompanying her. It had been some time since they had set foot in the area, as their initial survey following the end of the thousand-year war they had waged against Homeworld's armies had turned up nothing but a couple of swiftly vanquished corrupted Gems. All three of them would have happily stayed away from the area forever, had the Garnet not received a vision of the future with major ramifications.

"If I wasn't sure, we wouldn't be here," Garnet replied curtly. Pearl remained somewhat doubtful.

"Everything we've seen seems to suggest that, aside from Rose's shield, nothing could stop whatever that light did. Not even solid rock."

"Still, if Garnet saw what I think she saw..." Rose Quartz said thoughtfully, "This Gem we're going to encounter might not have been fully formed when the light hit. Maybe that screened them from the light's effects."

Garnet nodded. "They seem to be a Jasper who emerged late," she said, thinking. "We all know that this Kindergarten was built in a hurry compared to the Prime Kindergarten, and that they were continuing to churn out soldiers...right until the end." She paused again before finishing her thought. "A Gem taking a decade or so to emerge doesn't seem completely out of the realm of possibility."

Pearl slowly nodded. Garnet's logic was sound, and yet...a thought occurred to her. One which made her a little nervous. "Could it be that this Jasper deceives us in some way? That they're simply pretending in order to lead us into a trap?"

Garnet sighed. "I haven't seen any indication that this Jasper will cause us significant harm."

Pearl looked at the fusion, still unsure. "Well, all the same, I feel like we should at least consider the-AGH OH MY STARS LOOK!"

As she spoke, she spotted the overcooked Jasper herself in the distance, walking slowly towards them after seeing the massive plume of light produced by the warp pad. By that point, the three Crystal Gems were within her line of sight, and the Jasper seemed to pay particular attention to Pearl's movements. She took a massive step backwards and pointed at the group dramatically, looking completely panicked.

"AGH OH MY STARS LOOK!" she cried out.

When she didn't seem to do anything else other than sit in place, leaning nervously against an imaginary person, the three Gems were left confused.

"What...are they doing?" Pearl asked, herself leaning nervously against Garnet. Garnet placed a hand on her chin, thinking. The Jasper placed a hand on her own chin right after she did, copying Garnet's expression exactly. Garnet muttered to herself before voicing her thoughts.

"Yes, I saw this in the vision. It would seem that they can only repeat what we say and do."

Pearl slowly detached herself from Garnet's arm, looking at the Gem standing in front of her with bewilderment.

"...Something tells me they took a **very **long time to emerge," she said worriedly. Garnet frowned before reluctantly nodding. Although Pearl's tact could use some work, she wasn't wrong.

"I'm not even sure how long they've been here. It's been almost a decade since our survey, after all. They could have been wandering around like this for years. But still...they aren't corrupted. At least, not yet."

Pearl looked at the Jasper for a couple more seconds, unsure how to respond before she realized that Rose had been awfully quiet. The Jasper moved to cup her hands over her mouth, her eyes sparkling, which only served to confuse Pearl more. "Rose, what do you think we should-?" she began, turning towards her leader, only to see that it was Rose that the Jasper was mimicking. "...Rose?" Pearl asked, attempting to get her attention.

"They're **perfect**," Rose Quartz muttered, leaving Pearl confused. She looked over to the Jasper, then back at Rose Quartz, then back and forth another two times.

"What," she said, as if it were a statement rather than a question. Rose Quartz took a couple steps towards the Jasper excitedly, who promptly copied her gait and expression.

"Don't you see?" she asked, turning towards the others while holding a hand out towards the Jasper. "They're not like us! They emerged without knowing their purpose, without being instinctually aware of where they stand in the Homeworld hierarchy. All of us, we broke away from our intended roles, roles that some of us played for thousands of years! But them? They don't have an intended role at all!" She cupped her fists together, further indicating her excitement, as the Jasper followed suit. "They're **free**. Free to be their own person, to live their own life, without feeling like they have to measure up to Homeworld's expectations of what a Jasper should be!"

At the word "Jasper," the Gem's eyes widened slightly. Jasper...why did that sound so...right? So...her? She turned it around in her head, oblivious to the discussion.

"But isn't there a chance that they could turn on us?" Pearl asked, which only made Rose Quartz more excited.

"Exactly! They **could** turn on us! Or they could join us! They could choose to try and leave Earth, or they could stay here on their own! They could do **anything**, and it would all be **their **choice, based entirely on their own experiences!" Rose Quartz laughed, a musical sound that lifted the others' spirits, even if Pearl couldn't shake her own bad feeling about the whole thing. "Heck," Rose said, continuing, "they could even choose their own **name** for themselves!"

"Jasper," Jasper said, almost hesitantly, causing everyone to look at her. She had changed her pose such that she wasn't copying anyone, instead holding out her hand and looking down at it in contemplation as she said the first unique thing she'd ever said in her life. After a second...she smiled. Yes. The word felt right. She looked up at the others, positively beaming with happiness. "Jasper!" she repeated excitedly, looking at the Gems with wonder while Rose Quartz positively melted. She began laughing ecstatically once more as she moved to scoop up the smaller Gem and twirled her around. Her good mood was so infectious that it wasn't hard for it to spill over to Garnet and Pearl, who both smiled as their leader rejoiced. Garnet, however, retained some degree of caution.

"There is cause for caution in this situation," Garnet said. "They appear to be quite impressionable. We must be careful what we show them, and be mindful of any potential effects our interactions with them may have on their development."

Rose Quartz smiled, lifting up Jasper such that she was looking down at the imposing Quartz.

"If that's the case...then I want to show them **everything**."

* * *

Years earlier, on the other side of the continent, another Kindergarten was busy churning out Quartz soldiers as fast as they could possibly be made, although most of the canyon had been used up. Those soldiers who hadn't been sent off to the front were busy helping a couple of Peridots in maneuvering one of the injectors from where it had just finished the last row several hours before to a different area of the rock face. They had moved to the top of the wall and were about to inject the first Gem of the new row when a bellowing voice ordered them to stop. The Peridots were indignant at their work being disrupted, but they all froze when they saw who it was: a Hessonite, one of the major military commanders who assisted in managing their Kindergarten, accompanied by two Topazes. They knew she wouldn't ask them twice.

As the Peridots moved to disengage the injector, one of the Amethysts, designated as 8XJ, jumped down, intent on getting answers.

"What's going on, commander?" she asked. Hessonite looked at her quizzically, as if she was contemplating punishing her for the very question itself.

"These injectors need to be re-calibrated," she said simply. One of the Peridots, who had floated down by sliding down the metal of the injector tube, looked at her in confusion.

"Re-calibrated? But they're functioning perfectly," she said, causing Hessonite to smile and look at her like a poor, confused child.

"They're producing **Quartzes**," she said, spitting out the term with disgust. The Amethysts were only more confused by the statement, as well as a little angry.

"Is there a problem with that, commander?" 8XJ asked, earning her a look of revulsion from Hessonite.

"You do not get to talk anymore," she said angrily. 8XJ scowled, but she bit her tongue. By this time, the Peridots had successfully shut down the injector and moved to climb down, wanting to see what was going on. Hessonite cleared her throat and bellowed out to all Gems present. "As of this moment, this planet will no longer be producing or housing any Quartz soldiers! See to it that the injectors are re-calibrated to begin producing Feldspars, and inform every Quartz currently in service that they are to be transferred immediately to the Kappa Reticuli orbital station! These are the orders of our illustrious Diamonds!"

The Peridots groaned and scoffed to themselves at the proclamation.

"Oh, stars, this war really **is **going badly for us," one Peridot remarked.

"Indeed," another replied. "Why else would we start producing soldiers so **cheap**?"

The Amethysts, meanwhile, were left confused and angry.

"Now hang on, what reason do the Diamonds have to stop producing us?" 8XJ asked.

"Are they disappointed with our performance?" another Amethyst asked.

"We've been fighting this war for almost a thousand years! Why would they send us away now?"

"Be quiet!" Hessonite barked. "These are your orders! If you will not follow them, then I will have no choice but to-"

As she spoke, however, she heard a loud humming sound coming from the rock face near her. When it didn't cease for several seconds, the rest of the crowd which had gathered began to pay even closer attention. Amethysts don't take too long to emerge. Unless…

With one final burst of sound, the rock face blew apart, and a massive Amethyst burst from the hole, a hole so large that it just barely brushed up on the hole above it. The crowd looked at both the hole and the Amethyst in awe as she struck a triumphant pose, . At eight and a half feet tall, with a flowing mane of white hair, the Amethyst towered over every Gem assembled, although she'd be shorter than the two Topazes fused together. Moreover, her wide, muscular build alluded to a massive degree of strength well and above what was possessed by the vast majority of Gems. Although the Hessonite looked on with indifference, the Peridots scrutinized her closely. The shape of the hole, the minerals that they could perceive, the cut of her gemstone...there was only one explanation.

"A perfect cut..." one of them muttered. In the entire history of their colonization of Earth, only a few perfect cuts had ever been produced. Of those few, almost all of them had been lost fighting against the rebels. For a perfect cut to be made at all was an incredibly rare event, and would have been celebrated by all of the Peridots for weeks to come, each of them squabbling over who deserved the credit for the achievement. But now…

"She'll be the last," Hessonite declared firmly, leaving the newly emerged Gem confused. Before she could get any clarification from her, the Hessonite turned away, her Topazes falling in line behind her. The Peridots looked at the Amethyst for a moment before sighing.

"As you wish, commander," they said, already moving towards the injector to begin modifications. The Amethysts assembled looked at Hessonite angrily, not content to take this lying down but unsure of what to do. The newly emerged Amethyst, however, was simply confused.

"Wait, what's going on?" she asked the Peridots, who simply ignored her. She turned to the Amethysts. "Guys?" she asked, but most of them ignored her. Only the bold one from before, 8XJ, bothered to answer her.

"We've been ordered off the planet, 8XM," she said simply. "The Diamonds don't want us made here anymore."

This revelation only served to confuse 8XM even more. "W-what? I don't...I don't understand. Look at me!" She pounded her chest a couple times, showing off her strength and imposing physique. "I'm ready to fight! I'm ready to tear those traitorous off-colors apart! I'm ready to serve my Diamond and-"

"Your Diamond is GONE!" Hessonite snapped back, shocking everyone. The Peridots were, of course, loyal to all the Diamonds as a matter of course, but the Quartzes...they were **hers**. They had been made for her colony, from her essence. She was the reason for their existence. She was who they had been made for, who they had been made to fight for. And yet, she was…

"Gone?" 8XM asked, fearing the worst. She instinctively knew that Hessonites were not prone to emotional outbursts. For her to be so shaken up must mean-

"She was shattered," the Hessonite said, her words racked with genuine pain. "Shattered...by **Rose Quartz**."

The other Quartzes' eyes widened. This was why they were being transferred, why they were no longer needed. After Rose Quartz's rebellion had progressed into a full-scale war, all of the other Rose Quartzes were transferred to Kappa Reticuli and bubbled, believed to have possessed faulty programming due to their fellow Gem's behavior. The other Quartzes were saddened by the loss of so many good Gems, of course, but they had assumed that they would be safe. Their loyalty to the Diamonds was absolute...mostly. They had fought against the rebels for centuries!

"What's going to happen to us?" 8XM asked in a small voice. The Hessonite looked at her derisively, as if she were lower than a pebble.

"That's for the Diamonds to decide. You may be transferred to other assignments throughout the empire. You may be harvested. You may be shattered. It's no concern of mine."

"Harvested...shattered..." she muttered to herself. She knew what those things meant. Her Gem being deconstructed atom by atom, turned back into raw Diamond essence to be used for some other Gem. Her Gem being shattered into pieces, any semblance of a distinct consciousness completely done away with as her components became nothing more than mindless tools, shoved into some weapon of war. She...she was **perfect**. She knew it, they had all said it! She was stronger, faster, more durable than all but a select few types of Gem. She was the **best **that an Amethyst could possibly be! And she was loyal to the Diamonds, ready and willing to perform her assigned function without complaint! And yet, it...didn't matter. It didn't matter how much better she was than the rest of her kind. From the most overcooked runt to the most perfect cut...they were likely to be shattered. Done away with, like they were nothing. Like...**she **was nothing.

She began breathing heavily, looking down at the ground as she clenched her fists. She had had a purpose, she had had a master to serve and a duty to perform. But now...now it was all gone. In their grief, the Diamonds were punishing her and everyone like her for the crimes of...of...

"Rose," she growled in a low voice, such that only those closest to her would have heard. Those few Amethysts who overheard her, still not sure what to do in response to this whole situation, began to grow nervous as their companion stared down at the ground before suddenly rearing up her head. "ROSE!" she howled at the top of her lungs, loud enough for everyone to hear her and look at her in surprise. Before Hessonite had even turned her head, 8XM had already begun to move, intent on charging past the crowd. In the nick of time, the Amethysts closest to her managed to restrain her temporarily. "Let go of me!" 8XM cried to her companions. "I need to do what I was made for!"

"M, snap out of it!" the Amethyst on her right, 8XK, cautioned.

"What's gotten into you?!" the Amethyst on her left, 8XG, asked. 8XM screamed in frustration.

"I'll shatter that traitorous Quartz myself! Then we'll see if the Diamonds will continue to question my loyalty!"

As the Amethysts struggled in vain to hold her down, they were assisted by the two Topazes that had escorted Hessonite. With their combined strength, she looked well and truly pinned. Hessonite stepped forward, earning her a snarl from 8XM.

"Commander, order them to release me!"

Hessonite looked at her sternly.

"I will do no such thing."

"But the traitor must be punished!"

"She will be. You can rest assured of that. Now...cease this disobedient conduct at once, and carry out your orders!"

"I **can't**!" 8XM cried out helplessly.

Hessonite took a step backwards, stunned. "What did you say?"

"Forgive me, commander, but...I can't carry out those orders! To do so would go against everything I am!"

Hessonite looked at 8XM with disapproval. "The Diamond you were made for is **gone**. The Diamonds you serve have ordered you to leave this planet and submit to their judgement. You **will **comply."

8XM continued to struggle, tears forming in her eyes as her titanic strength seemed to have met its match. "My Diamond may be gone, but I still have my purpose! My purpose is to defeat the rebels! My purpose is to defeat Rose Quartz!" The Topazes looked to each other and fused together, their combined form giving her only a brief second to resist. She pushed back with all her might while they were still forming, but this effort wasn't enough, and the fusion pushed down harder than the two Topazes had previously. She landed on the ground with a thud, unable to stand. "**Please**!" she begged. "I'll leave the planet as soon as I can, but please, you **must **let me fulfill my purpose!"

"Unacceptable. An order from a Diamond can brook no argument, no delay, and no negotiation. It must be carried out, to the letter, **immediately**. If you cannot do that...then you have no reason to exist." Hessonite waited a couple seconds, but when 8XM continued to struggle in vain against her captors, she sighed in annoyance. "I didn't think so. Alright, Topaz, end her. We'll have her bubbled and put in storage while I send Yellow Diamond a report of her actions. She will decide what to do with her."

"Understood," the fused Topaz responded, summoning twin blades from her gems and preparing to cut 8XM apart. Realizing what was happening, the two Amethysts holding her turned to the fusion to try and stop her, giving 8XM an opening. In mere seconds, her form glowed a bright purple-white light, and shrunk down smaller than they could immediately see. The fusion attempted to get sight of her once more, but the other Amethysts were the first to notice the gem of their companion as her smaller form ran furiously towards Topaz-and glowed again.

"M, wait-!" 8XK cried out, but it was too late: 8XM had already shapeshifted beyond her original size into a massive behemoth, one so large that the sheer act of her growing in size sent every Gem that had been holding her down flying backwards onto the ground. Before they could adjust to what was happening, 8XM had already curled up into a ball and dashed towards Hessonite at incredible speeds. To everyone assembled, it looked as though 8XM would run their commander over, but in a split second, a pink spear jutted out from 8XM's back, entering inches below her gem. Shocked at Hessonite's sheer speed, 8XM was left wide eyed as she realized that she was about to be sent back into her gemstone, for the first and possibly last time in her life. Hessonite looked into her eyes coldly, jamming her spear a little deeper into 8XM's body just for the sake of emphasis.

"If it were my choice to make...I would have shattered you instead."

And with that, everything went to black.

* * *

Hoo, boy, this took a lot longer than I thought it would.

It's been a long time since I've written a Steven Universe fic that wasn't part of some weekly event. My first few fics were...not my best work, in my personal opinion. But, nevertheless, with a lot more experience as a writer than I had back then, and a particularly interesting idea in my head, I've decided to take another stab at it. I was just kind of idly thinking about the various AUs that have been popping up in the fandom, and I realized that most of the big ones tended to revolve around pretty major changes to the basic premise of the show, which occur as a result of swapping out various cast members. Chekov's Ask Steven and White Pearl comic is arguably the biggest example of this: an AU where Steven is the son of White Diamond, accompanied by her transformed Pink Pearl and eventually encountering the Crystal Gems as we know them, Rose Quartz included. Connieswap is another major one, not only doing the typical "Momswap" format of Peridot, Lapis, and Jasper serving as Crystal Gems alongside the new "Citrine" who serves the role of Rose Quartz, but also swapping out Steven and Connie such that Steven is a normal human and Connie is the Gem hybrid. There's some other big ones, like Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond Steven AUs, and several AUs of Steven being born on Homeworld. But of all these various swap AUs, I haven't seen any which seek to deal with one particular question: what if Jasper and Amethyst switched places? What if Jasper was the overcooked runt who joined the Crystal Gems, while Amethyst was the perfect cut Quartz?

Some details have been messed with, most notably Amethyst's formation date. This was done partly for dramatic effect, having her form right as the Quartzes are ordered to leave, and partly because Amethyst's canon formation date makes no sense. She's 500 years overcooked, she came out after a one thousand year war, yet she was put into the ground before that war even started. That doesn't add up. Jasper being put in about halfway into the war makes sense given that the Beta Kindergarten sprung up to make more soldiers fast, and 500 years of extra time would have her come out right about when the war ended, having her avoid corruption. But that's just a nitpick on my end.

Anyway, I mostly wrote this just to get the story off the ground and out into the open. I would ideally like to cover the entirety of events in the canon, all the way through the movie and Future, but I recognize that I am one man with a lot of other projects to work on and life stuff to do. As such, it might be a while before another chapter of this gets published, and I don't really have much of a clue how I'd structure the coming chapters beyond doing my version of Gem Glow. Still, I hope that what I have now is satisfactory, and I look forward to hearing what you all think. In the meantime, have a fantastic Halloween night, everyone, and take care!


End file.
